Keynote Presentation: Prof Leon Wainwright

Speakers: Dr Ginny Elston, Sam Cornish, Gordon Dalton, Associate Professor Helen Westgeest, Prof Alistair Payne,Kevin Mooney, Ed Kettleborough, Dr Kimathi Donkor, Katie Tomlinson, Chester Tenneson and Kefan Bai.

Painting has always been a field where histories – personal, collective, and material – are written, erased, and rewritten. Artists, art historians and curators have continually explored how contemporary painting engages with the past. Painters often mine, resist, or reconstruct histories in order to speak to the urgencies of the present. However, the pitfalls of nostalgia and sentimentality remain ever present.

From decolonial and feminist practices to queer and mystical lineages, from reimagined myths to the politics of patronage and the church, painting continues to negotiate its own position within, and against, historical frameworks. How do contemporary painters address the legacies of exclusion and domination that, arguably, shape art history? How does painting respond to or rewrite the conditions of its own making; its institutions, patrons, and systems of value? How might the medium open new ways of seeing time, memory, and belonging?

This one day symposium features presentations from 12 artists and writers exploring the artistic, historical, theoretical and societal contexts and debates that underlie painting’s ‘histories’ in all its various guises.

Registration is open from 9.30am with speakers beginning at 10am.

This event is organised in partnership with MTU Crawford College of Art and Design with support from MTU’s Teaching and Learning Unit, AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office, MTU Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts and Media and MTU Arts Office.

For queries regarding the symposium, please contact donal.moloney@mtu.ie

Installation shot of ‘Katie Tomlinson, The Best Things In Life Are Free (2023), 140 x 200cm, Oil on Canvas. Image Credit: Michael Pollard. Courtesy of the artist and Brooke Benington.’